Jacques Kuba Séguin
jazz trumpet
“...one of our best jazz trumpet soloists.”
— A. Brunet, La Presse
Biography
Adventurous and multi-talented, trumpeter Jacques Kuba Séguin is a composer for groups of various formats: Odd Lot, Litania Projekt, or quintet, as for Migrations, MiGRATIONS, his recent album for which he received the 2020 JUNO award for Jazz solo album of the year.
Séguin's musical repertoire is by turns melodic, explosive, and accessible. As a performer, he is definitely a showman, and he is recognized as one of the most brilliant trumpeters of his generation.
A winner of the 2012-13 Radio-Canada Revelations prize, Séguin is more and more present on the Quebec stage. In 2015, he was nominated for ADISQ awards in two categories: best arranger and jazz album of the year for L'élévation du point de chute and, in 2016, for Litania Projekt with the Quatuor Bozzini in the same two categories. In 2015, he was nominated for a Prix Opus for jazz album of the year for L'élévation du point de chute, and for jazz and world music concert of the year for his 2014 Montreal International Jazz Festival show, where Jacques presented an expanded version of his Litania Projekt, adding a string quartet to the ensemble.
Programmes and projects
MiGRATIONS represents a form of jazz that will sound familiar to listeners, but also brings with it a renewed, free, personal, and uniquely emotional approach to the storied genre. It is a mosaic of compositions based on the life course of people from different cultural communities living or having immigrated to Quebec, Canada, blending stories and shedding light on the intermixing of cultures. Séguin's music is cinematographic, direct, dynamic and touching. His music invites us to a sensitive experience and, hopefully, a reflection on openness to others, an open mind-set that is lived through a genre based on listening and meeting: jazz
Jacques Kuba Séguin, joined by Jim Doxas (drums), Jonathan Cayer (piano), and Frédéric Alarie (double bass), present the Litania Projekt. At times inspired by European jazz and at times drawing on classical music, Jacques Kuba Séguin composed works which unite these two universes. Halfway between improvisation and written music, this programme recalls cinematic images, creating a musical fresco that approaches melancholy without sinking into sadness. This programme is also offered in collaboration with the Bozzini String Quartet.
Jacques hosts Symphonie en bleue, a radio show he created in collaboration with producer Guylaine Picard for ICI Musique Classique. The show was presented in 2017-2018, summer 2018, as well as in June 2019 for 4 specials for the FIJM 40th anniversary. The collaboration with Radio-Canada / ICI Musique Classique continues in future seasons.
Collaboration with orchestras
Jacques collaborates with orchestras as a composer, offering a unique mix of classical and jazz music. Jacques's first orchestral piece was with the Polish Philharmonic Orchestra of Zielona Góra. The director of the orchestra commissioned an original piece for the orchestra which will be presented at the Jazz Crossing Festival in October 2020. Jacques is currently collaborating with the French tenor saxophone player Lionel Belmondo in the composition of a piece for full orchestra.
*more information to come
Reviews
“... Seguin's dynamically sculpted sound that is cohesive, celebratory and anthemic.”
— D. McClenaghan
LE DEVOIR
“...not a record simply for the sake of sticking seven or eight songs together : He considers, he consults, he conceptualises. Bravo! because the results are refreshing”
— G. Bourgault-Côté
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